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Just hours before the start of his trial, Kulwant Litt advised the Superior Court that he will plead guilty to helping cover up the manslaughter death of his pregnant daughter-in-law, Poonam Litt. And so the old man will join his killer daughter and her accessory of a husband in going to prison for what they did to that poor girl more than six years ago.

Earlier this year, a jury found Litt’s daughter Mandeep Punia, 39, guilty of manslaughter and her husband Skinder Punia, 46, guilty of being an accessory after the fact for hiding Poonam’s body in a Caledon forest and then returning to try to burn it. Litt’s son-in-law was sentenced to seven years in prison. His daughter will learn her fate Thursday. The Crown is seeking 12 to 14 years; her defence lawyers have urged the judge to sentence the mother of two to eight to 10 years.

Now the patriarch of this evil family is ready to admit he was an accessory after the fact, as well.

For years, Litt told Peel Police and even worse, his own son, Manjinder, that he had no idea what had befallen Poonam, that the young mother simply vanished on Feb. 5, 2009 after leaving the Brampton home she shared with her in-laws to walk to work in a dental office a short distance away.

As his son pleaded for the return of his wife, as he watched his granddaughter cry for her missing mother, Litt clung to his story that Poonam had left for work that morning. Few believed him: her wallet, keys and coat were all still in the home. How could she just disappear? Peel Police were convinced he knew more and even arrested the convicted sex offender for murder before letting him go.

Three long years and they almost got away with it.

It was only in 2012 that their heinous crime was uncovered. Litt told a relative what happened the night before Poonam’s “disappearance”: While Manjinder was away in India, his wife and sister got into an argument and Mandeep had stabbed her to death in a rage. He and Skinder had disposed of Poonam’s body in the middle of the night. On learning of this conversation, Manjinder was so enraged with his estranged father that he approached the police and arranged to wear a wire to record his confession.

Hoping to be reconciled with his son, Litt told Majinder the whole story: Poonam had come home from work and was holding their toddler when she accused her sister-in-law of having an affair before her arranged marriage. Mandeep left the room and returned with a boxcutter, he said, which she plunged into Poonam’s neck and then did nothing as she bled out on the floor.

His daughter cleaned the home of any evidence, Litt said, while he helped her husband Skinder load the body into the family van and hide it in a wooded area in Caledon, where it would remain undiscovered for three years.

Manjinder convinced his father to repeat his tale to the police and Litt agreed, hoping their family could then be reunited and they could all move on. How delusional he was. When he learned his angry son never had any plan to reconcile, he retracted it all. Even when he took the stand at the Punias’ trial, Litt backtracked and insisted he was drunk when he spoke to the authorities and none of them had anything to do with Poonam’s disappearance or hiding her remains.

A jury obviously didn’t believe him and found his daughter and son-in-law guilty. He stood little chance of escaping conviction as well for his role as an accessory in this web of lies and deception — so he told the court he will plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact on Friday after his daughter is sentenced.

“They have done so much and ruined my life,” his son Manjinder said bitterly earlier this year when he testified against his sister and brother-in-law. “Mandeep, Skinder and him (Kulwant), they all did it together.”

And now hopefully they will all get the punishment they so richly deserve.